This App-Controlled Air Conditioner Automatically Adjusts to Your Habits

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Photos by Quirky+GE

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Photos by Quirky+GE

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Photos by Quirky+GE

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Photos by Quirky+GE

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Photos by Quirky+GE

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Photos by Quirky+GE

With the cold weather persisting in the northeast, it’s hard to believe that we’ll all be complaining about the humidity in a few short months. If you’re in the market for a new air conditioner and you (and the heat) can wait till May, the Quirky+GE Aros is an app-enabled, Wi-Fi-connected window unit that combines Nest-like features with an 8,000 BTU cooling system.

Many modern air conditioners already have sensor-driven cooling that kicks in once the room temperature hits a certain level, but the Aros’ on-board temperature and humidity sensors add a slew of other automation features. Even without a motion sensor on board, the unit is able to detect when you’re in and out of the house and adjust the temperature accordingly — that’s driven by the geolocation feature on your phone. The system also creates a cooling schedule for you based on your usage habits after a couple of weeks, and you can have the system regulate the AC unit’s energy consumption based on the maximum amount you’d like to spend on your energy bills.

The Wi-Fi-enabled Aros can also be operated remotely via a mobile app — turning it on during the final minutes of your commute home, or having the AC kick on automatically based on your phone’s GPS coordinates, for example. Like other Quirky+GE devices, the Aros is controlled through the free Wink app for iOS and Android devices.

Like all Quirky projects, this one taps into the idea of one person — Columbia, Maryland’s Garthen Leslie, in this case — and uses crowdsourced suggestions to hone the final product. But for the Aros, the project also tapped into GE’s experience in creating home appliances. But even though the guts of the AC unit are similar to existing GE 115-volt/8,000 BTU air conditioners, the exterior has undergone a dramatic overhaul.

It looks almost like a giant white Bluetooth speaker, with a minimalist front grille dotted with circular holes, slotted vents on the top that are designed to blow air upward and maximize circulation, a blue LED readout of the temperature on the bottom right corner of the unit, and capacitive touch-buttons on the bottom left corner for controlling the unit.

Eight thousand BTUs is a decent amount of cooling capacity, but it’s rated for rooms and apartments that are a maximum of 350 square feet. However, the Aros also supports multi-room daisy-chain setups, as more than one unit can be used to collect usage data and a cluster can be controlled as a single system via the Wink app.

Each AC unit costs $300, which is a good price. Other GE 8,000 BTU/115-volt air conditioners cost around $250, and those don’t offer the smart features or slick aesthetics of the Aros. It’s available for pre-order now on Amazon, and it’s slated to start shipping in May.